Havila Voyages

Bergen

Norwegian Fjords

Arctic

Excellent

Poor

Havila Capella

Havila Castor

Great ship - lots of coastal scenery - Northern Lights

Halifax

Was originally booked on Polaris for January 2023 to see the Northern Lights, but ship delivery issues resulted in a rebooking on a sister ship in November 2023.  We had the Lighthouse Suite which is the best cabin on board.   This was a winter cruise so daylight hours range from about 8 hours in Bergen to 4 hours in Kirkenes.  

There was at least one stop every day that had shore excursions - but winter time meant that the options were limited.  The 11 day roundtrip booking has over 30+ ports each direction.  Most are for 15 minutes only and de-boarding really isn't an option.  Due to construction some stops required a little bit of a hike to reach the town.  The smaller ports often times only had a few shops.  We did find shopping malls (mega Coop) with numerous shops in some ports.

We found the ship options confusing.  If you book a suite - you can eat BREAKFAST in the Fine dining room - but it is the same food as found in the regular dining room - just a more intimate setting.   Lunch is not served in Fine Dining and Dinner is a 5 course menu that you must reserve.   The breakfast and dinner menu in the dining room includes extra items that can be purchased for a charge or come FREE if you have purchased the HAVILA GOLD option.   If you book a suite - GOLD is included in the booking.  Gold include the 5 course fine dining option one time going North and once going South.  

The alcoholic drink packages can be shared across multiple people even if in different cabins.  We purchase 100 drinks for 4 people which did provide a savings if we had bought drinks individually.  If you have GOLD you also get a non-alcoholic drink package, otherwise sodas, specialty coffees, and hot chocolate also would incur a cost.

There is a lot of down time on this itinerary in the winter time - there is no entertainment on the ship - so be prepared to make your own.  The excursion folks do have sessions describing what is coming up in the next couple of days.   We bought games with us.   There was a handful of channels on TV that had English.  There are 2 large hottubs on the ship with a nice Sauna and changing room near it.

While these ships state they can hold 600 passengers - that assumes all cabins are at max capacity.  Our ship had about 250 passengers and in the summer they generally have about 450.  If interested in this shipping line - sign up for their email list - they run deals.  In the USA you have to book directly with Havila - travel agents could not book for us in 2023.

We’ve just disembarked from Havila Capella. I’d give it a wide berth if I were you. We booked an excursion for which we were charged a lot money, it turned out the excursion was only possible in Winter.  Not in August. It was refunded via bank wire then charged again on my credit card. I emailed them by they’ve sort of disappeared. Food is scanty. Portions are meager ok if you are on a diet or about to be given a new kidney. Other than that is pure naked fasting. Customer service does not exist. Some staff very surly. When spoken to some staff give you dirty looks as if you were some sort smuggler from godforsaken  Siberia. 

Drinks are very expensive: a glass of wine costs €14. The restaurant is understaffed for a service “a la carte”. For such a service you need professional like chefs de rang, commis, etc. A buffet would be wiser.

Heading to nowhere

Havila Cruise - 8 March - 20 March 2023

12 Day North and South (Round Voyage) Cruise

SUMMARY


Would we recommend this cruise company - YES

Would we recommend this cruise - YES

Were the cabins comfortable - YES

Was the food good? - Generally, YES

Were the staff helpful - YES

Were the excursions, we went on, good - YES

Details

We sailed on the Havila Capella which is a modern ship which uses battery power and LNG to power the engines.  We found it to be a very quiet ship with no vibrations from the engine room and also a very stable ship on the couple of days when we were out on the open sea.  The ship cannot be faulted in any way, the decks were cleared of ice when possible, although there was a lot of snowfall when we were on the journey, and icy conditions, which meant there were times when the decks were icy and we had to take care when walking on deck.

We would thoroughly recommend this cruise to anyone who wishes to visit the coastline of Norway with the possibility of seeing the Northern lights.  Embarkation was in Bergen, this was no problem at all, we were issued with ID cards which were scanned when getting on and off the ship on excursions, these cards were also used for billing any purchases on board.  Before boarding the ship, we were shown a safety video which lasted approximately 5 minutes.  We were welcomed aboard and shown details of our cabin, which was on deck 4.  The first evening all passengers ate at the same time in the restaurant, but subsequently we were able to choose our preferred meal times for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  We chose 9.00 a.m. breakfast, 1.30 p.m. lunch and 8.00 p.m. dinner, which were all waiter service.  However, we sometimes chose not to go to the restaurant for lunch and had a lighter snack in the cafe instead.

The cabin was a good size, standard hotel layout, plenty of storage with fridge, kettle and tea/coffee making facilities, television with ship information including location charts, bow camera, excursion information and tv channels, bathroom with underfloor heating, consisting of toilet, sink and shower.  Towels and bed linen could have been changed daily, but we went with the eco voyager option of only changing towels, etc. occasionally.

Staff were extremely friendly and helpful in all parts of the ship.  The expedition team were very knowledgeable about various excursions and we had daily updates every day in the conference room which were very informative, which included a Northern Lights prediction, and even during night hours tannoy announcements were made throughout the ship to alert us to get on deck.

We chose to go on two excursions, the dog sledding and polar night snowmobiling.  These were both excellent, although there was some confusion on the dog sledding as to which bus to go on, as there were different options for the excursions.  The experience was outstanding for both excursions.  Training for the snowmobiling was rudimentary, but even I, as a very nervous driver, enjoyed the experience very much and sped along with the best of them. Both excursions got us back to the ship well in time for departure.

On the whole, the food was excellent and there was a good choice, with the menu changing every couple of days depending on which part of Norway we were sailing, i.e, fjords, arctic, polar.  We found the vegetables accompanying the main meal at dinner were too al dente for our taste.  There was a good choice at breakfast, lunch was generally tapas style and the recommendation was to have 3 different items, but we generally found this too much for our taste, evening meal was a starter, main course and dessert.

There is no entertainment on the ship, most of the time we were at sea we used to relax and read.

We were very fortunate to see the Northern Lights one evening, the first sighting was not spectacular, but the second, at approx 1.00am, was incredible. It so happened that we were getting ready for the snowmobiling excursion anyway, at 1.30am, so we were already dressed, it was an amazing display which lasted about 30 minutes.

To repeat, we cannot recommend this cruise highly enough, it was a fantastic experience, with experiences and memories we will cherish for a long time

Fantastic Cruise - Highly Recommended

We cruised aboard the “new” cruise ship traveling the Norway coast up to the Arctic Circle. This is the Capella, owned by Havila, a Norwegian company.  This cruise took place the last week of Sept. – ending 12 days later. 

I was unable to find any reviews on Cruise Critic prior to the trip, other than a general overview of the ship’s features.  Hopefully this will whet the appetite of those scheduled for an upcoming cruise on Havila ships.  

Up until this year Hurtigruten has had a monopoly on this 12 day cruise offered from Bergen, past the Arctic Circle to Kirkenes and back.  The government has agreed to alternate days between these two companies. No one in our party has sailed on Hurtigruten so I am unable to make any comparisons. 

We have enjoyed the cruise, we have seen the Northern Lights 4 times and probably could have seen them more if we had wanted to get up from our warm beds.  We have also enjoyed some good weather – 4 days of very clear crisp fall weather and only one or two really wet misty days. 

The ship is amazing!  The crew still seems to be settling in, but are extremely cheerful and want to help.  There are currently two Havila ships making this route, with two more expected to come on line in the next 4 months.  On this cruise we had approx. 100 paying cruise passengers (capacity is 460) and we were told that they had extra staff “in-training” for the new ships that would be arriving.  

On this cruise we had only about 6 Americans – the rest were largely in one travel group with a guide from Germany and most of the rest seemed to be German as well.  The announcements were made in Norwegian, German and English.   

Hurtigruten seems to do the same route, same stops, every other day. We have passed “Castor”(the other Havila ship in operation) twice with appropriate flag waving and cheering on both occasions.  We have passed Hurtigruten with blasts of the horn and I’m told the shipboard employees (many that have moved from that company to the new) are on good terms, but with some tensions in the corporate offices. 

For those who are unaware, this “service” started as a mail/supply ship to service the landlocked villages in the fjords.  Now, with roads and planes, the service may not be as necessary, but we saw a number of passengers come on simply to travel to a nearby village to shop, for medical appts or see friends.  These passengers tend to stay by themselves but are often at the snack bar on the 6th floor.  The tourist trade has increased year by year due to the beautiful scenery and the attraction of being fairly certain of seeing the Northern Lights. 

Havila is very proud of their eco-friendly ships that can run on battery power when entering the fjords, while running on Liquefied Natural Gas most of the time – much less CO2 emission than diesel.  We were told that Norway has goals that no CO2 emissions will be allowed in some of the fjords at some point in the future and that these ships are the only ones that meet those standards at this time. 

About our cruise – we spent 3 days in Bergen prior to the cruise – an appropriate amount of time after flying from the US to get settled, learn the town, etc. (We took the light rail train from the airport to town and would recommend that. Good price, easy transition and get an idea of how the area works in the 30 minute trip.) We did purchase the “Bergen Card” which gets a lot of publicity.  We didn’t get much benefit – in some cases  we did things simply to “use” it.   

One day we ventured outside of Bergen for the “Bergen in a Nutshell” tour of the mountains and fjords – this was well worth the cost – we bought a “self-guided” tour, which sounded challenging, but English is commonly spoken and we had no problems. Self guided means you get tickets to a series of transportation - train 1st, bus, ferry then two different trains but negotating the stations, getting on the right train is "on your own". The most confusing was the 1st train in Bergen because the station was crowded with several trains leaving at the same time. Once we got into the more rural villages it was more obvious as a number of people were on the same "adventure".  Guided versions are also available but cost considerably more, and we tried to price it out by buying all the tickets (bus/train/ferry) ourselves and would have saved about $30 – which probably would have been much more confusing! 

About the cruise itself:  Check-in was amazingly simple with no line at all and taking all of about 5 minutes.  Once passports were checked a picture was taken and an ID card which serves as the room key was given out, our luggage was taken away and we were done.  Of course with only 100 passengers (and most coming as a tour group we were in an enviable position.)  

We wandered the ship waiting for our cabins to be prepared for several hours.  Our group of 4 had three “cabins" Two with a "window” and one interior cabin.  The window is about 3 ft. by 2 ft. – plenty of room to see out. The interior room was tight but adequate for one person. They had a fold-out bunk bed – perhaps adequate for children but I can’t see two adults being too happy in the space provided.  Of course my belief is that you only sleep in your cabin on a cruise. Not everyone's belief and for this cruise we knew we would be seeing a lot of scenery and were willing to pay for the view. 

Our room had a surprising amount of storage space – a queen size bed, small desk, sofa & small closet.  There was a refrigerator that we never used. The bath had a shower and while adequate, seemed to spill water all over the tiled floor during a shower. (not a problem with drains in the floor and a sill, but the design could have been better.  The toilets flush loudly but have a unique swirl that “cleans” them quite well.

One issue we had in all of our rooms was the constant change in water temperature while showering.  Even when lukewarm it sometimes got almost hot enough to scald – so you learned to aim it to the corner and be ready to duck away. 

PORTS:  There are something like 33 different ports that are visited going north, and the about the same number heading south.  Most are short 15 or 20 minute stops with little if any time to get off the ship, let alone explore the ports.  Many were at night while you slept.  Nine of the ports give you an hour or more.  These are the larger cities and excursions are offered, but the ship is often right in town, or has bus service to town which allows passengers to explore on their own or pay for a tour.

The northernmost port is Kirkenes which is perhaps 10 miles from the Russian border, and prior to the war in Ukraine had quite an active ‘trade’ with Russians.  Security along the border has been beefed up, but no one seemed overly concerned, and most hoped things would get back to normal in the near future.

The excursion we took here was quite interesting – providing a nice overview of the damage done during WWII, a visit right to the border with guard booth, no man’s land, and all the warnings.

Other large cities with extended time was Tromso and Hammerfest.  Excursions are listed on the Havila website with prices in Krone and euros – not US$ - but were quite expensive – few under $100.  One example was an electric bike tour up a nice valley (which we did) for around $150.  The scenery was fantastic, the guide as good/friendly – the weather was miserable and there was no refund unless the tour company cancelled. It was about 40 and rain/sleet mix the full 2 ½ hours.  The city tours with buses were very informative as far as learning about the history, and culture of Norway.

The ship had a “cruise director” and her assistant.  Every day there was a talk about upcoming ports or Norwegian life, etc.  They also offered help in the ports – directing to stores or attractions.  They were very friendly and knowledgeable.  All “lectures” were offered in German and English.  These were also located in the small gift shop which offered clothing, some simple medicines and the usual tourist items.  These seemed to be quite expensive

FOOD SERVICE:  If you like fish, you will enjoy the food.  With the ratio of staff to the small number of passengers the service was excellent.  This was all table served, no buffet. The menu usually offered 4 or 5 entrees of which most were fish related.  Steak was always on the menu and one other option was pork or chicken. There were plenty of vegetarian options as well. Portions were small, but adequate – we never left hungry and you could order a variety – i.e. two entrees or two desserts.  The ship had a snackbar – mostly for the locals going port to port, but at one point my wife (who, in general, doesn’t like fish) asked if she could get a hamburger from the snackbar for her dinner and they were happy to do that. 

Each meal there were special items available for an additional charge, or, I believe at no cost if you were in one of the “suites”.  We never felt the need to do this, and by the end of the cruise most of those items had been on the regular menu at least a few times.

All in all, Norwegians are extremely health conscious.  The menu mirrored this with lots of vegetables and yogurt, grains, etc. 

To give a last comment, we were glad we went. The waterfalls, the oceanside villages, simply the terrain – all were both beautiful and special.  Norway is an impressive country!  Everyone we talked to spoke excellent English and were very helpful.  Our cruise was 12 days, 6 up and 6 back.  There is something to be said about perhaps going one direction (6 days) since you see the same towns twice, but when considering the cost and effort to travel the 12 days gives more time to relax and learn more about this special country.

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